A Case of the Runs

EVENT : La Jolla Half-Marathon DATE : Sunday, April 29, 2012 LOCATION : Del Mar & La Jolla, CA RACE BEGAN : 7:30 am FINISH TIME : 02:09:47 I did this race because it is Part 2 of 3 of the Triple Crown .  Part 1 was Carlsbad Half-Marathon in January.  This was a repeat race for me, last having done this in 2008. Before I go on, this race is one of the handful that I've run without portable music .  I tend to leave music behind in trail races, but otherwise, I had forgotten about the "no iPod" rule for this one and then debated internally whether I should abide, since I keep the volume low anyway.  Finally, I decided that I should just follow the race's set rules as part of good sportsmanship, though I really missed my tunes and am pretty sure I could have shaved some time off with that kind of motivation.  In addition, I didn't appreciate hearing snickering, heavy breathing, hacking of snot, talk about other races, and talk about upcoming hills. ...

A year ago, I posted THIS entry as I was getting ready to do my final dissertation defense.  It was also the first day I was addressed as "doctor."  To clarify, most of the time nowadays, people say stuff like, "Oh, I didn't know you were a doctor."  It's not something I like to throw around because A) I'm not a medical doctor or professor, and B) it makes me feel as though I actually need to KNOW something... and I am often doubtful about that!  But at the time, it was novel, and to be called that by a professor made up for SOME of the nights I spent on the phone, writing my dissertation, while listening to music and watching videos on YouTube . I know I didn't always paint the rosiest picture of graduate school  here, but in spite of my whining, there is nothing quite like doing something that you've only heard joked about on television or referenced as a hyperbole (ever heard, "Just write a couple of paragraphs, not a dissertation...

UPDATE: 5/4/12 -- This giveaway is now closed.  The winning comment is #5, Kenley !  I will contact you, but if you miss it, please e-mail me.  Thanks to all who entered... more giveaways are on the way! ------ I'm going to talk about weight here. Of food. I thought I'd spare you details of my not-so-great progress in my " equilibrium " (aka, to lose 10 lbs) goal.  I actually haven't used my scale in a couple of months, somewhat out of fear.  I'm pretty sure I've returned to my starting point from last November, not like I was having a huge loss, but it's hard for me to move anywhere in the downward trajectory.  Some days, my clothes don't fit well... and then some days, they seem to just fine.  And when I went wedding dress shopping, I didn't really have issues with how I looked, so I'm not really inclined to check my (lack of) progress. But it's less about appearance rather than how lackluster my runs and other fitness en...

I was on my way back from an unsuccessful drug test (relating to THIS post) when I made this discovery. No, I didn't fail (no poppy seed muffins for me that morning, hah!), but I did fail to see that the place I had gone to do it only does the drug screens from 1-4:30 PM, and so my trip was futile.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  It was pouring rain, I had to pay for parking, and I'm pretty sure I lost some other money at one point when I spilled the contents of my wallet somewhere in that building.  Just one of those days. I hadn't gone to the bathroom or eaten too much before the test.  I know it's not the same as fasting for a blood test, but anytime I need to provide specimens for medical purposes of any kind, I tend to hold my food and drink -- just in case.  Who knows... perhaps my food would get spiked or react with my vitamins or whatnot.  I know, I'm stupidly paranoid, but it's a habit.  Since I had to wait a couple more hours now to go ba...

Let's talk work.  Umm, not running or blogging... I mean "real" work. I realize this is a public forum, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't find it horribly inappropriate to discuss my career struggles here.  In the type of economic climate we have had over the past five or so years, I think it's important to be familiar with the humility and perseverance that comes with employment. Work is a huge part of my life... and most of our lives... for most of our lives.  It becomes part of our identities and is oftentimes our livelihoods.  Of course, because of the field I studied in graduate school ( industrial and organizational psychology ), I do believe that work is VERY important and is very much integrated with our own psyches. So when people are out of work, it's like a charley horse to the ego.  We've all seen, or maybe experienced, this and its effects.  (I recently Tweeted THIS Harvard Business Review article on the subject... you should r...

I haven't updated on wedding plans since February .  Since I apparently have some Klout on the topic, I figure I should post something eventually. Going through all these motions definitely makes me question and re-question our decision to actually have a ceremony.  I know that isn't the best thing to say, but the excitement hasn't really been where people have led me to believe it should be.  This is probably in part because I am not doing the whole bridal party thing -- if I haven't mentioned it before, the reason for that is to keep simplicity.  Of course, the trade-off is that the excitement seems to come from those, so hmmm.  [Fortunately, a number of my female friends have volunteered to keep things flowing that day so that things don't fall apart completely under my inexperienced watch.] I recently went for my first expedition for a dress.  I'm not sure where I got the idea of "7 months prior" from, but I had procrastinated long enoug...

Coming out pretty fresh from the LA Marathon , I did something shocking and signed up for the Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon in June. I won this entry at the Santa Barbara Marathon Expo last November and wasn't sure if I was going to use it.  Since I've been performing pretty well race-wise this year, my overconfidence won out in the end.  Besides, I've been conditioned to the word FREE to bite, thanks to my parents! This has definitely been a packed racing year so far compared to last year, or perhaps I really just blew it in 2011 due to worrying about my dissertation and money.  Partly responsible for all the racing this year was the allure of these "race series" that give medals at the end -- the Triple Crown in San Diego and Beach Cities challenge .  I promise I won't let those kind of increasingly-popular race company gimmicks get the better of me in the future, so I anticipate that I will be running fewer races in subsequent years.  [Also, I don't wan...

I realize that I am a bit behind in my normal posting schedule, though I'm sure most of us are inundated enough not to notice. Things have been kind of haphazard lately... changes at work (will elaborate later), personal introspection (more on this later, perhaps), trying to stay on the running train post- marathon , and my eating... goodness.  I haven't quite been so peppy lately (unrelated to the eating, I think), which is not helping my " equilibrium goal," either. So I thought I'd just share some of the things I've eaten as of late -- and these are probably the more innoculous items, mainly because they were cooked (mostly by "The Ukrainian")/eaten at home.  One of the "healthier" dishes... potato pancake/latke with tuna and salad (goat cheese+olives+grape tomatoes).   This was Domino's night.  Finished a pizza between the two of us, and no running took place the next day, hah!  First egg poaching... just p...